1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems, methods, protocols, apparatus and related software for high-speed data communications. More particularly, the invention relates to the aliasing and routing of plural MPEG data streams. Accordingly, the general objects of the invention are to provide novel systems, methods, apparatus and software of such character.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rise of the information age in recent years, digital communications hardware has become much more sophisticated and specialized in an effort to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for faster delivery of information and for information transfer options. For example, the typical modern communications system may include one or more signal receivers, decoders, modulators, data servers, streaming video servers, transaction, billing and conditional access processors, communication controllers and/or broadband media routers. Broadband media routers and/or Transport Multiplexers (TMXs) are particularly important and are generally used to multiplex data streams or to re-multiplex data streams that have previously been multiplexed. More specifically, they are used to groom multiple transport streams, such as MPEG encoded video streams (MPEG is an acronym for Moving Picture Experts Group and is generically used herein to refer to the various adopted versions of that protocol, e.g., MPEG1, MPEG2, etc.), and to thereby produce output streams for video appliances such as digital televisions, personal versatile recorders (PVR), and the like. This grooming can include, for example, transcoding, advertisement insertion, adding IP opportunistic data, re-multiplexing incoming services to provide a new channel line-up, etc.
Broadband media routers typically comprise various hardware components and, since it is necessary to communicate signals between these various components, these components must be communicatively linked together. This is typically achieved with the use of a backplane which is a circuit board that interconnects components situated on shelves within a rack or chassis. Custom backplane designs have been the typical solution for interconnecting components in a particular way in order to achieve the desired functionality. Such custom designs incorporate discrete hardware to send data in parallel form between the different components (e.g., circuit boards) connected by the backplane. While effective to a degree, these custom designs are expensive, single use solutions and are, therefore, neither efficient nor cost-effective. They, additionally, are bandwidth limited, which poses limitations on the systems with which they are used.
Further, there is an ever-increasing need for faster and more flexible transport of digital data streams regardless of whether such transport occurs between locations on different processing boards or between locations on the same processing board. There is also an ever-increasing need to transport more and more input data streams to more and more target destinations at faster and faster rates.
There is, accordingly, a need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that provide faster and more flexible transport of MPEG data streams between locations on different processing boards and/or between locations on a single processing board. It would also be advantageous to provide a scheme for a large number (e.g., ten) of MPEG input data streams to a large number of selected target destinations. It would be further advantageous to provide methods and apparatus for routing packetized data without the need to make major hardware modifications to existing components of, e.g., a TMX. The present invention provides a solution having the aforementioned and other advantages.